Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had discussions with the Cabinet Office on the potential merits of amending the benefits assessment process for victims of the contaminated blood scandal.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Infected Blood Inquiry is ongoing, and it is only reasonable that the inquiry concludes and provides its final recommendations before the Government responds. The Government is undertaking the necessary work to enable a swift response to the full report, when it is published.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is intended to act as a contribution towards the extra costs that arise from needs related to a long-term health condition or disability. Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is an income-replacement benefit for individuals who have a health condition or disability that limits their capability to work.
People whose ability to work or to live independently which has been affected as a consequence of receiving infected blood can claim, and in many cases are already claiming, these benefits. The department has talked to people affected and improved its processes to ensure these claims are dealt with quickly and accurately.
Eligibility for these benefits is not based on the diagnosis of a health condition or disability. Instead, both the Work Capability Assessment, which determines entitlement to ESA and the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit, and the PIP assessment, assess the impact of a person’s health condition or disability on doing everyday tasks to determine eligibility for the benefit. In practice, these assessments will often be a paper-based process where people are seriously ill.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of freezing the rates of Local Housing Allowance on the number of people who will be unable to meet their housing costs.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department does not hold this information, therefore no such estimate had been made.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 5 March 2019, Official Report column WS1376, what the implementation dates are for the new stipulations on personal independence payment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In March 2019 the Secretary of State announced that people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who have reached State Pension Age will no longer have their awards regularly reviewed, instead moving to a light touch review at 10 years. From 31 May 2019 new claimants to PIP whose review would have been scheduled after they had reached State Pension age will receive an ongoing award with a light touch review at 10 years. Claimants already in receipt of PIP will be moved to on-going awards from this July.
This change is an important step in improving the claimant experience by reducing reviews for these claimants whose needs are less likely to change.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Written Statement of 5 March 2019, HCWS1376,what assessment she has made of the effect of new provisions for reviews of personal independence payments on the review timescale for claimants who are state pension age and over.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In March 2019 the Secretary of State announced that people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who have reached State Pension Age will no longer have their awards regularly reviewed, instead moving to a light touch review at 10 years. From 31 May 2019 new claimants to PIP whose review would have been scheduled after they had reached State Pension age will receive an ongoing award with a light touch review at 10 years. Claimants already in receipt of PIP will be moved to on-going awards from this July.
This change is an important step in improving the claimant experience by reducing reviews for these claimants whose needs are less likely to change.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Written Statement of 5 March 2019, WS1376, whether there will be regular reviews of personal independence payment awards to people (a) at and (b) above state pension age.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In March 2019 the Secretary of State announced that people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who have reached State Pension Age will no longer have their awards regularly reviewed, instead moving to a light touch review at 10 years. From 31 May 2019 new claimants to PIP whose review would have been scheduled after they had reached State Pension age will receive an ongoing award with a light touch review at 10 years. Claimants already in receipt of PIP will be moved to on-going awards from this July.
This change is an important step in improving the claimant experience by reducing reviews for these claimants whose needs are less likely to change.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a brain tumour their main disabling condition have (a) applied for and (b) received Employment and Support Allowance in each year since 2010.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Brain tumours can commonly refer to a range of different conditions depending on the type of tumour. They are also grouped with other central nervous system tumours when being recorded. As such it is not possible for us to isolate brain tumours as a separate recorded condition. The available information held relating to this condition is shown in the following tables:
Table 1: Number of individuals making an initial claim to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) whose main disabling condition was recorded as relating to Brain or Central Nervous System Tumours, by year of claim start Jan 2010 to Mar 2017: Great Britain
Year of ESA claim start | Initial ESA |
2010 | 1,000 |
2011 | 1,200 |
2012 | 1,100 |
2013 | 1,200 |
2014 | 1,200 |
2015 | 1,100 |
2016 | 1,200 |
2017 (Jan - Mar) | 300 |
Table 2: Number of individuals assigned to the ESA Support Group or the ESA Work Capability Group following their Work Capability Assessment (for initial, repeat or IB reassessment claims), whose main disabling condition was recorded as relating to Brain or Central Nervous System Tumours, by year of claim start or IB reassessment referral, Jan 2010 to Mar 2017: Great Britain
Year of ESA claim start | Initial ESA | Repeat ESA | IB |
2010 | 800 | 400 | - |
2011 | 900 | 600 | 300 |
2012 | 900 | 600 | 600 |
2013 | 900 | 500 | 700 |
2014 | 900 | 300 | 100 |
2015 | 900 | 200 | 100 |
2016 | 800 | 100 | 100 |
2017 (Jan - Mar) | 200 | - | - |
Source for Tables 1 and 2: Application data is derived from administrative data held by the DWP and assessment data provided by the Healthcare Provider.
Notes for Tables 1 and 2:
a. Malignant Neoplasm of Brain
b. Benign Neoplasm of Meninges
c. Benign Neoplasm of Brain and other parts of central nervous system
d. Neoplasm of uncertain or unknown behaviour of brain and central nervous system
6. The primary medical condition recorded on the claim form does not itself confer entitlement to ESA. So, for example, a decision on entitlement for a customer claiming ESA on the basis of Malignant Neoplasm of Brain would be based on their ability to carry out the range of activities assessed by the work capability assessment.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a brain tumour as their main disabling condition have (a) applied for and (b) received personal independence payments in each year since 2013.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Brain tumour is not recorded as a separate category in the main disabling condition list as recorded on the PIP computer system.
Information is published in relation to primary disabling conditions where available, this can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer system. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these published statistics.
In the application process, claimants’ main disabling condition is only recorded for collation by the Department at assessment. It is not recorded at the point of application. The Department does not therefore hold data on the number of applicants to PIP with particular conditions. Only those who have a disability assessment determination decision will have a main disabling condition recorded for them.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria his Department has set to ensure that people who carry out personal independence payment assessments for Capita are fully qualified medically.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
All Health Professionals (HPs) undertaking assessments on behalf of DWP must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training, experience and competence.
Approval to work as an HP must be conferred by the DWP Chief Medical Adviser on behalf of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
For the delivery of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments, they must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor. They must also be fully registered and have at least two years’ post full-registration experience.
In addition to their profession, the Department recognises the importance of ensuring that individuals also have sufficient experience, skills and training to carry out their duties and PIP providers are required to ensure that the HPs carrying out assessments have knowledge of the clinical aspects and likely functional effects of a wide range of health conditions and impairments. This means that all HPs receive comprehensive training in disability analysis which includes a functional evaluation as to how medical conditions and the long-term medical treatment of those conditions affect an individual’s ability to perform day-to-day activities. Prior to carrying out an assessment the HP routinely refreshes their knowledge of any condition with which they are not fully familiar.